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Thursday, 30 April 2015

Milibrand - Not Reading Before Writing

Another day at the piss-poor repository of tacky pro-Tory propaganda that is SunNation, and another excuse, with Mil The Younger visiting Russell Brand to chat about why one should vote and become part of the political process, to put the boot into Labour. Allowed to fly solo for the first time in making the initial assault was Alex “Billy Liar” Wickham, newly anointed teaboy to the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines at the Guido Fawkes blog.

Spokesman for an entire generation. Or maybe not

This supposed “journalist’ (no, don’t laugh) ticked all the knocking copy boxes as he sneered long and loud in a style that would no doubt find approval from his pal James “saviour of Western civilisation” Delingpole, leering “CONGRATULATIONS, ED! YOU’VE MANAGED TO PATRONISE AN ENTIRE GENERATION … Way to be condescending”. However, and here we encounter a significantly sized however, all was not as it seemed.

James Doleman - who is a real journalist - was sure the hatchet job had been published before Brand’s YouTube channel The Trews had released the full video of the interview. Wickham denied this, but then, he’s not garnered the nickname “Billy Liar” for nothing. Whether or not SunNation posted his “article” after The Trews went live, it is all too obvious from the teaboy’s prose that he did not need to have seen it to make his observations.

You think I jest? Have a look: “There are thousands of people who in eight days should be voting for the first time, but who don’t feel represented by our political class, who don’t feel they have anyone to vote for … How incredibly condescending it is for Labour’s leader to think that these people are represented by Brand”. He makes no such assumption, and there is no sign here that Wickham watched the interview before writing.

There’s more: “The vast majority of people my age are nothing like Brand [how would you know, Alex?]. They are normal, decent, hardworking people who do their jobs, pay their rent, pay their mortgages and pay their taxes … Yes they are interested in important issues of social justice, but that is not the same as Brand’s bonkers, childish call to overthrow society and start again”. He didn’t see the interview first, did he?

Do go on: “How out of touch of Miliband to think that, just because he has a few YouTube subscribers [1.1 million is “a few”. Way to go, “Billy Liar”], Brand speaks for a generation … How downright insulting of him to put on a Mockney accent for the interview [he didn’t, you got that from other hostile reviews of the trailer], presumably because he thinks that is how young people talk”. He still didn’t see the interview first.

Spokesman's effectiveness, as measured by his own readers

And here’s the clincher: “that trip from Ed’s multi-million pound house to Russell’s multi-million pound house to lecture us about poverty won’t seem so clever after all”. They didn’t actually talk explicitly about poverty. There you have it: either Alex Wickham wrote his knocking copy without watching the video on which he was commenting, or he’s an even bigger liar than anyone gave him credit for.

“Billy Liar” caught bang to rights. And even the poll results don’t agree with him.